Ancient Scriptures: The Book of Mormon: Native American Ancestry

B.H. Roberts, who studied the Book of Mormon extensively, once stated: "The Hebrew origin of those races in our book is so unequivocally stated and so emphasized that if the said American races could be proven beyond doubt to be of other than Hebrew origin, the claims of The Book of Mormon would be shattered" (Roberts 1909, 3:40). In the introduction to the Book of Mormon we read that the Lamanites are the "principal ancestors of the American Indians." The Book of Mormon itself speaks of no other people in the Americas beyond the three groups originating in the Near East. The D&C refers to Native Americans living on the US frontier as Lamanites (D&C 28:8-9, 54:8). Joseph Smith on many occasions referred orally and in print to Lamanites and Nephites as having lived over the entire hemisphere (there is an uncanonized revelation by Joseph indicating that Lehi landed in Chile), and other prophets have spoken of South American and Polynesian populations as descendants of the Lamanites. In fact, the great success of Latin American missions is often attributed to the these people's Lamanite ancestry. The Book of Mormon, while it makes no definitive claims, gives the impression that the land was empty when the Jaredites arrived. Nothing is mentioned about Book of Mormon peoples ever encountering other groups or civilizations who were there before the Jaredites. The Book of Mormon implies that the Lamanites and Nephites filled the land with great civilizations that included walled cities and Solomonesque temples, and gives the impression that the population of these civilizations was in the millions.

There are two ideas suggested by the Book of Mormon that can be tested genetically. One is that the Book of Mormon people were the principal ancestors of Native Americans in North and/or South America and the Pacific islands. While this claim is strongly implied by the Book of Mormon itself, is stated directly in the introduction to the book, and has been claimed by many prophets beginning with Joseph himself, this claim does not have to be true for the Book of Mormon to be ancient. Recent BYU scholars have retreated from the hemispheric view (although the church has not changed the introduction to the Book of Mormon) and now speculate that Book of Mormon civilizations occupied a small area of Central America (see for example, Sorenson 1985).

The second idea is that some Native Americans must be descendents of the Lamanites and Nephites, and therefore must have some Israelite ancestry. This claim must be true if the Book of Mormon is indeed an authentic record of an ancient Israelite civilization. Unless God purposely and miraculously covered up the evidence for some reason, we should, with the right tools, be able to find indications of Hebrew ancestry among at least some Native Americans. If there are descendants of Lehi alive in the Western hemisphere today (as must be the case for the book's prophecies to be fulfilled), then genetic evidence of Semitic ancestry should exist. In fact one would expect this evidence to be fairly widespread, considering that the Book of Mormon describes the most technologically advanced pre-Columbian civilization in the hemisphere, and the time the descendents of Lehi have had to interbreed with other native populations.

One source of genetic evidence, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), is passed on to the next generation exclusively by women, with very rare and inconsequential exceptions. In Lehi's original band you would have had mtDNA from Sariah, Ishamel's wife, and Ishmael's daughters-in-law. All of the next generation would possess mtDNA from these women, and the females in that generation would in turn pass their mtDNA on to the next. After a few generations you would have many women who would be capable of passing on the mtDNA of the original female colonists. If a woman has only sons, her mtDNA will not be represented in her grandchildren's generation, but that woman's sisters and some female cousins can all pass on this same mtDNA. In order for this mtDNA to entirely disappear from the population, all lineages from all of these women must have ended in a generation that produced no surviving daughters. Considering the size of Book of Mormon populations, it is thus very unlikely that the mtDNA of all original female colonists ceased to be perpetuated. The same principles apply to Y chromosome lineages, which would have originated in Lehi, Ishmael and Zoram. Furthermore, the population of Mulekites, containing DNA of the Israelite royal lineage, merged with Nephi's group. If the Book of Mormon account is correct, a good, representative sample of Israelite DNA was present in the ancestors of at least some Native Americans.

So what does the genetic evidence tell us about the ancestry of Native Americans? The DNA of thousands of people in North, Central and South America has been extensively analyzed over the years by many researchers, including a group at BYU which studied over 2000 Native Americans. All of the evidence overwhelmingly indicates that the principal ancestors of Native Americans were groups of Asians that migrated to the Americas thousands of years before the Jaredites supposedly arrived in the Western hemisphere. There is evidence for one or, more likely, multiple waves of migration from Asia, occurring over 10,000 years ago. Thus the claim that Lamanites and Nephites are the principal ancestors of the American Indians is undeniably false. There is no conceivable way that Native Americans can have Book of Mormon populations as principal ancestors and show primarily Central Asian genetic markers unless God miraculously changed the DNA of millions of natives. Additionally, Polynesians also show Asian ancestry, although one that is distinctly different from continental natives. Thus, even if Native Americans were descendants of Lamanites, Polynesians would not be, contrary to what has been claimed by some 20th century church leaders.

Is there any indication that there is some Israelite ancestry in some Native American populations? Again the clear answer is no. Genetic markers for Hebrew populations are reasonably well characterized (see for example, Thomas, Skoreckiad et al. 1998). None of these unique markers show up in Native Americans. 98% of all Native American mtDNA, taken from living populations as well as ancient bones, falls into one of five founding lineages that stem from Asia. Nothing in the remaining 2% suggests Israelite ancestry at this point. Similar results were obtained from Y chromosome studies, which are currently less complete. There is not a single line of even weak genetic evidence to support the idea that any immigrants from the Near East reached the Americas in pre-Columbian times. Could there be some evidence that has yet to be uncovered? This is certainly possible, but unlikely at this point since Native American populations have been studied extensively; in fact their ancestry has been studied more closely than just about any other large group in the world because of a long fascination with their pre-historic origins. It is hard to believe that civilizations the size of those described in the Book of Mormon would have left no trace in the genetic record. Any genetic evidence of Old World contacts that comes to light in the future would probably indicate only very small contacts, not large, sophisticated civilizations. Finally, the genetic evidence we have is also consistent with cultural, linguistic and archaeological evidence, so scientists have no reason to doubt the validity of the genetic data. (For references, some of which also serve as entry points to the primary literature, see Cavalli-Sforza, Menozzi et al. 1994; Crawford 1998; Murphy 2002; Southerton 2004)

If a researcher today were to discover solid evidence of Hebrew ancestry in some Native Americans, this would be big news and a great boost to that researcher's reputation. People have speculated about pre-Columbian Old World contacts with this continent for hundreds of years, and providing firm support for such contacts would be a tremendously significant achievement. (To my knowledge, pre-Columbian Viking settlements are the only firmly established Old-World connections at this point.) If such work was well done, it would be published in a top journal. Scientists like nothing better than to discover something new or prove other scientists wrong. The physical anthropologists who do this work don't really care or think about the Book of Mormon (unless they are Mormon) - none of them are trying to hide evidence or have some ideological reason to disbelieve that Native Americans have Hebrew ancestry.